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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Second Annual Elwyns Awards!

Hello, and welcome to the Second Annual Elwyns Awards, a ceremony (see: blog post) dedicated to celebrating the greatest accomplishments set to film during the past year. This is, of course, my personal chance to play god with the Oscars, righting what I perceive to be the Academy's wrongs, replacing them with my own glorious, irrefutable selections. Sounds cool, right? I knew you'd think so. I had intended on replicating almost every category seen at the actual Oscars, but a technical problem has forced me to only discuss the awards that you would actually care about (oh no!). I've got a bone to pick with the golden man this year, Only four of the Academy's nine Best Picture nominees slotting in my Top 40 Movies of 2011. I'm not usually this much of a contrarian; Four of my Top five of 2011 were up for the big prize, as well as my Top three from the year before (A Serious Man, Precious, and Up). So, what is a movie-obsessive like me supposed to do to heal this pain? Declare nominees, winners, and runner-ups of their own for almost every category! Without further delay, The Elwyns:

***A Special thanks to my big sister, Brittany Elwyn, for helping me out with all of the lovely graphics featured below***

Best Picture:
And the Nominees are...

Attack the Block

Beginners

Hugo

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Melancholia

The Tree of Life

Young Adult

Just a few short days ago, I discussed all of these picks at length, so I won't bother kicking a dead horse. A small note, however: I think that, despite its near-deplorable first execution, the Academy's idea of nominating anywhere between 5-10 movies for Best Picture is a brilliant plan, so I adopted it. These seven are the flicks that represent the very top tier of filmmaking in 2011.

And the Collin goes to...

The Tree of Life

What can I say? The Tree of Life is beautiful, majestic, hypnotizing, and trail-blazing. Even if it's occasionally maddeningly imperfect, no other 2011 entry had half the ambition, and the fact that the film's staggeringly enormous scope was in any way realized, let alone gloriously, should be celebrated.

Runner-Up: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Best Director:

And the Nominees are...

Sean Durkin---Martha Marcy May Marlene

Terrence Malick---The Tree of Life

Mike Mills---Beginners

Martin Scorsese---Hugo

Lars von Trier---Melancholia

Sean Durkin is the definition of a natural, crafting an absolutely terrifying, spell-binding, and electric movie on his very first attempt. Malick is a mad man with an undeniable eye for beauty, and no other human being on earth could have concocted the cosmic opus that is The Tree of Life. Translating his own personal story without ever coming off as self-congragilatory, Mike Mills helmed a terrific cast in one of the most artistic and heartening films of the year. Scorsese pulled yet another rabbit out of his seemingly bottomless hat, showing us jaded film-goers just how revelatory and amazing 3-D can be, all whilst poetically expressing his boundless love for the medium. Melancholia might be one of the most powerful films ever made about depression, and it's thanks to von Trier that the audience not only understands how it arises, but comes to understand how it feels.

And the Collin goes to...

Terrence Malick---The Tree of Life

Malick, not pictured above due to his notorious avoidance of all things public, conceptualizes and executes movies like no one else in the history of film. The Tree of Life might be one of his messiest flicks to date, but it's also his most elating, transcendent, and purely awe-inspiring. His work here makes jaws drop.

Runner-Up: Sean Durkin---Martha Marcy May Marlene

Best Actor:

And the Nominees are...

Jean Dujardin---The Artist

Michael Fassbender---Shame

Michael Shannon---Take Shelter

Filippo Timi---The Double Hour

Jacob Wysocki---Terri

Jean Dujardin, previously unknown in America, and thought of primarily as a comic actor in his native France, pulls off what could have been one of the most obnoxious lead performances of the year with deft dramatic balance, and spectacular physicality. Eating up the screen every moment that he's on it, Fassbender's Brandon Sullivan is a spectacular mess, displaying both the charm, and the utter depravity that it took to get where he is today. I might not be the biggest fan of Take Shelter, but Shannon positively dominates the film, performing a rare feat of under acting on his part, displaying the confusion and fear of his character without ever over-doing it. Timi is the brooding, masculine center of one of the year's finest romances/mysteries, never showing his cards until the very end. In his feature debut, Wysocki is an understated natural, senses of pain, isolation, and even wonder crossing his face with complete believability.

And the Collin goes to...

Michael Fassbender---Shame

As fierce, committed, and breath-taking a performance as any given in 2011, Fassbender tops off his incredible 2011 by putting on an absolute clinic in Shame. He's the captain, MVP, and closer of one of 2011's best films, and his work towers over the competition.

Runner-Up: Michael Shannon---Take Shelter

Best Actress:

And the Nominees are...

Juliette Binoche---Certified Copy

Kirsten Dunst---Melancholia

Tilda Swinton---We Need to Talk About Kevin

Charlize Theron---Young Adult

Jeong-hie Yun---Poetry

As the center of Certified Copy's mysterious romance, Juliette Binoche navigates three languages, and some treacherous emotional territory without a single false step. Dunst begins Melancholia as a seemingly happy-go-lucky sort before slowly revealing palpable inner devastation. Swinton experiences similar pain, but her character's reaction is to bottle those feelings up, allowing subtle movements and flickers behind eyes to tell her story. The only actress of the bunch who gets to have genuine fun, Theron is the gloriously awful creature at the center of the monster movie that is Young Adult. Like Dunst, Yun travels from one emotional extreme to another, all bubbly and open-armed before the metaphorical storm comes, leaving her broken.

And the Collin goes to...

Juliette Binoche---Certified Copy

Binoche's face registers every emotion in the book, capturing the joy and excitement of good conversation, beautifully rendering the pain, confusion, and (potential) misery of her character with the utmost grace.

Runner-Up: Jeong-hie Yun---Poetry

Best Supporting Actor:

And the Nominees are...

Bruce Greenwood---Meek's Cutoff

Patton Oswalt---Young Adult

Brad Pitt---The Tree of Life

John C. Reilly---Terri

Corey Stoll---Midnight in Paris

Somehow, each and every, 'End of the Year,' list has completely forgotten Bruce Greenwood's theatrical, unrecognizable turn as Stephen Meek, but I won't let the gruff mountain man escape my list. Oswalt, in one of his largest acting roles to date, plays the self-effecing side of his character perfectly, burying his misery under a paper-thin veneer. As one of the two cosmic forces holding the key's to a young boy's fate, Brad Pitt gives the best non-hyper-showy performance of his career, his southern clenched jaw masking what might be a gentle man beneath the surface. Reilly does much of the strangely eager act that he's worked in many films, but Terri is savvy enough to linger on his insecurities for longer than most movies do, and what it finds there is fascinating. Finally, Stoll delivers Midnight in Paris's finest performance as a hilariously masculine Earnest Hemingway, offering life advise as he parties and scowls the night away.

And the Collin goes to...

Brad Pitt---The Tree of Life

In one of the most careful performances of the year, Pitt completely changes his body language and mannerisms, morphing into the iron-fisted southern Father figure than many boys idolized and feared in the 50's, alternating between friendly giant, and fearsome tyrant.

Runner-Up: Bruce Greenwood---Meek's Cutoff

Best Supporting Actress:

And the Nominees are...

Elena Anaya---The Skin I Live In

Bérénice Bejo---The Artist

Jessica Chastain---The Tree of Life

Carey Mulligan---Shame

Ellen Page---Super

Anaya lights up the screen in The Skin I Live In, sexy, wounded, and glamorous in just the way that her seedy, faux-noir flick needed. Bejo, like her co-star Dujardin, turns a potentially disastrous performance into one of the year's most memorable and endearing, her spark and pep radiating off of the screen. As a sort of surrogate for Mother Nature, Chastain delivers the most beautiful performance of the year, misting through her film, giving The Tree of Life's etherial concepts a face. No actor this year impressed me more with the sheer versatility of a performance than Mulligan, shedding her normally innocent, controlled shell to play a reckless mess of a woman with complete believability. Page, in one of 2011's most over-looked turns, morphs from intrusive comic geek to costume-wearing psychopath, gleefully reveling in every action.

And the Collin goes to...

Jessica Chastain---The Tree of Life

Malick uses Chastain as his explanation of grace in the world, and it's a testament to the illustriousness of her performance that she completely lives up to this calling.

Runner-Up: Carey Mulligan---Shame

Best Ensamble:

And the Nominees are...

A Separation

Attack the Block

Contagion

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

A really fun SAG category that has thus far escaped the glamour of Oscar night, I love this section. A Separation is littered with fine thespians, each doing their part to drive home one of 2011's biggest emotional roller coasters. The five youth's at the center of Attack the Block have a kind of chemistry that just can't be taught, and the way that they riff of of one another is the main reason that their movie is the funniest of the year. Contagion rallies together a handful of the planet's greatest actors, all believably employed in this thought-provoking examination of a world in crisis. Hugo is jam-packed with characters, each played with gooey nostalgia, perfectly expressive and sweeping. And what is Midnight in Paris if not an excuse to feature great performances from actors playing literary idols, though we'd be wise not to forget that it's Owen's charming innocence and naivety at the center of the film that makes the whole thing work.

And the Collin goes to...

Hugo

It's such a big, flashy, show-casey kind of movie, with so many winning turns in what could have been cloying roles... this has to be the one.

There was hardly an Adapted Screenplay worth mention this past year, so I just picked the ten that I liked best, regardless of distinction. My favorite is Beginners, a film that finds an adorable, gorgeous way to tell a very difficult, personal story. The love letter to Mills' late father never misses a beat.

Runner-Up: Patrick Dewitt---Terri

Best Foreign Language:

And the Nominees are...

Certified Copy

The Double Hour

Incendies

Poetry

The Skin I Live In

And the Collin goes to...

Incendies

An epic that's Shakespearian in scope, Incendies is an enormous, captivating effort that keeps you guessing until the very end. One of 2011's most engaging entries.

Runner-Up: The Double Hour

Best Cinematography:

And the Nominees are...

Joel Hodge---Bellflower

Alwin H. Kuchler---Hanna

Robert Richardson---Hugo

Jody Lee Lipes---Martha Marcy May Marlene

Emmanuel Lubezki---The Tree of Life

And the Collin goes to...

Emmanuel Lubezki---The Tree of Life

What a year for camera men! Both Richardson and Lipes deserve a lot of credit, the former hurling us through a 3-D world beyond our imagination, the latter putting us in a trance with his images. But the award has to go to Lubezki, who, simply put, shot one of the most staggeringly beautiful movies ever committed to film.